Nicky King Street East at Yonge
King Street East at Yonge Street is one of the busiest intersections in Downtown Toronto. It’s always a challenge to shoot a street scene, everything is moving, or if they are waiting at a traffic light you know they are going to move at any minute.
Street cars give Toronto instant character. I like taking street shots from different directions at different times of the day, for example looking East or looking West. So this scene on King Street East is one of several. It was taken on a weekend, which is why it was slightly easier to get a clear shot of the street cars. The lights had just turned green so it was a question of my taking the shot quickly. The street cars can seem slow, however it never ceases to amaze me how fast they are able to move when you want to get a photograph of them. It’s not easy to get two crossing in frame that often, so I am pretty happy to have got this one.
Toronto’s street cars are going to be replaced by some modern-looking cars in a year. They are long, sleeker and in my opinion lack the character of the current Toronto street cars. At the moment tracks for the new cars are being laid. It’s high time Toronto got new street cars, the current ones are old and well past their prime. But it will be very odd not to see what has become a symbol of Toronto. Saying that though I think Londoners said that when the old London Routemaster buses were phased out and the new buses came in.
